The troll fishery for chum salmon in Sitka Sound has gone from looking pretty dismal, to record-setting -- almost overnight. A surge of hatchery-produced, fall chum has been pushing catch rates for trollers into numbers normally seen by the net fisheries.
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As of Friday (8-27-21), 15 percent of the available hospital beds in Alaska are occupied by COVID patients -- putting a huge strain on a healthcare system that traditionally has a lot of other illnesses and injuries to attend to at this time of year.
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School board president Amy Morrison is running for another term. Although she's got just three years under her belt, she's the most senior board member, after outgoing member Eric Van Cise.
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Political newcomer Todd Gebler has joined the race for Sitka School Board, on the advice of his neighbor, Amy Morrison, who is also running.
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Sitka Schools opened on Monday (8-23-21), with a return to full, in-person learning for all students -- with masks. The district's mitigation plan will require masks until Sitka's alert level drops to "low" or "minimal."
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Sitka schools will reopen on August 23 with an optional masking policy, in the event that the community’s alert level drops to "low." The proposed policy may conflict with guidance from state and federal health experts who say that universal masking is the best way to keep kids in school.
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A nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. Wednesday morning, August 11 in Alaska. Besides radio and television, the test will also go out over most cell phones.
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The SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates quickly, but not every mutation is as troublesome as the delta variant. Sometimes, mutations can go the other way and become less virulent.
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While Sitka -- like many places -- is struggling right now with the delta variant and an unexpected surge in coronavirus infections, over most of the last year it got the pandemic right: low infection rate, high support for vulnerable parts of the community. Around 80 policy researchers and government entities convened on Wednesday (7-28-21) to listen as three Sitkans explained how it was done.
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Despite the relatively high number of COVID-19 cases in vaccinated people in Sitka during the current outbreak, the effectiveness of the vaccines remains very strong. Epidemiologists don’t really know how long the new vaccines last -- it could be months or even years.
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